Egg carton or carrier.



W. A. SCHURMANN. EGG CARTON 0R CARRIER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 16. 1908.

Patented Apr. 20, 1909.

2 sums-sum 1.

W Mm HH U w. A. SGHURMANN.

EGG CARTON 0R CARRIER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 16. 1908- 91 501 Patented Apr. 20, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET rigid and durable when in se, capable of be UNITED STATESPATENT cation.

7 WILLIAM A. SCHURMANN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

EGG CARTON OR CARRIER;

Application filed July 15, 1908. Serial n). 443,575.

useful Improvements in Egg Cartons or Carriers, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to that class of egg carriers designed to be usedfor delivering a small number of eggs, a dozen or so, at a time, as'contradistinguished from egg car.- riers in which large quantities areshi ped, and the invention has for its rimary 0 ject to provide animproved, simp e and efficient egg carrier of this general class whichwill be ing readily knocked down in compact form other objects which Wwhen not n use, and as readily setup for use when desired.

Another object of the invention is to ro- Vlde a box-like e g carrieror. caiton in WlllGlI 'thebbx portions all be capable of having itsvarlous members secured together to constitute the perfected box, andatthe same time be capable of folding into. a, compact form withoutnecessarily detaching said members, whereby the device will be com pactfor shipment, but will be susceptible of eing eadily set up or unfoldedto receive the eggs or other contents.

A further object of thein'vention is to pro vide a crush box capable ofhaving its sides held in position for use by the fillingor partitionswhich constitute the cells fdr the eggs or other contents.

With a view to the attainment' of these ends and the accom lishment ofcertain hereinafter appear, the invention consists in the features ofnovelty which willriow be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawin s, and

more particularly pointed. out in the c a1m-.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a blank from which the carton is made. Fi.52 is a fragmentaryerspective viewof t e blank partiall fol ed to makethecarton. Fig. 3 isa simi ar perspective view showing the members ofthe blank secured at one end, and

thecompleted carton partially crushed.

combined, ready for use.

In carrying out the invention, "the or outside portion of the carrier ispreferably Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April a0, 1 09.

composed of some thin material, such as paste board or stout paper,capable of being folded into the form of a box or receptacle,

and afterward being crushed to a fiat form so that it may be again setup readyfor res oeiving the contents without necessarilyde; taching themembers of the blank, thus' providing .for the complete manufacture ofthe box at the box factory, where of course it can be made and securedtogether with much greater facility than is possible for the user.

After the carton or box portion is set up for use, the fillerconstituting the cells for the eggs or other contents is put within it,and serves the tVVOr'fQld purpose of holding the sides of the box inposition while forming the partitions for holdi'ng the eggs apart;

' The box or carton is preferably formed from a single piece of materialin the form of blank. In the exemplilicationof the invention shown inthe drawings, the blank, whose outline is. better illustrated in Fig. 1comises a bottom vortion 1, bounded by the our-crease or fol lines 2, 3,4 and 5; a front wall or, portion 6, bounded at the inner side by thethree fold'lines 5, 7 and '8; a back wall 9, bounded by the fold line 2and the three fold lineslfl, 11 and 12; a top orlid member 13, having alocking lip 14 adapted to be folded downwardly at an angle to the lidalong the fold line 15; end walls 16 and 17 walls 16, 17 aresimilarlyturned .11 wardl'y alon the fold lines 3, 4 respectivey, after whic thestay members 18, 19 at each end are turned toward each other against theouter sides of the end walls 16, 17, the stay members 18', 19 beingfolded or bent along the fold lines 11, 12 and 7, 8 respectively,

and. after they are thus folded, they are secured in place in anydesired way, such, for example, as by means of a staple 2Q assmg throughthe reinforced ends formed y the three members 16, 18 and 19. at one endand 17, 18 and 19 at the' other end of'the box. This constitutes thebody of the box andit only remains to fold or crease the lid 13 alongthe line 16, when the lip 14 may be turne downwardly into the boxbetweenthe inner face of the wall 6 and the ends of the mem hers 16, 17 The boxor'carton thus eonstructed may be crushed into the fiat form shown inFig. 4, without'destroying the continuity of the walls or detaching theend members which hold the blank together, in the form of a box. Thereare, of course, various methods of thus collapsing the box, which willnow suggest themselves to those familiar with the invention, but onewhich is most effective and results not only in a neat and compl ctpackage but which prevents the front we from bulging outwardly when thebox is unfolded for use consists in forcing the front wall 6 inwardly-sothat it will lie directly in contact with the bottom 1, then folding thefront corners inwardly on top of the front wall, and finally folding therear corners downwardly and forwardly on top of the ends,and over thebottom of the box, that is, so thatthey will lie directly in contactwiththe outer faces of the members 18, these members in fact beingfolded directly upon themselves, while the top or lid lies fiat acrossthe front corners and the front wall in the same plane as the foldedback, assuming that the box is to be thus crushed with the liduppermost. n Fig. 4, however, it is shown with the lid underneathfor'the sake of better illustration. In order that the box may be thuscrushed neatly and with readiness, the completely constructed box isprovided with certain creases that are conducive to the structure beingthus crushed always in the. same form and along the same crease lines.

which permit the wall to be forced inwardly,

I and the ends of -thebox are formed with upwardlyand inwardly extendingcreases 22. \Vhen the front corners are folded downwardly against theface of the front wall, the

upper ed es thereof cross the front wall at right ang es orsubstantially right angles to :the upper edge of said wall, and-thesecrease lines 21 extend from the point where the up- I form, but inpractice it is preferable to clip these corners off, as indicated'at19", and for the same reason the upper corners of the stay members 18are clipped off as shown at 18 thus avoiding the necessity of foldingthese corners when the box is crushed, which would result in leavingthem protruding from the end of the box when it is again set u for use.

This would not only make the en s of the box unsightly, but wouldsomewhat interfere with the box being neatly crushed. After the box hasbeen once crushedin the manner described, it possesses a tendency toagain assume its crushed form after it has been The front wall is formedwithupwardly and inwardly extending creases 21 The end with as usual.

straightened out thereby preventing the front 6 from bulging outwardlyaway from the filler which would weaken the box, but by placing thelock-lip 14 between the inner face of the front wall 6 and the ends ofthe end walls 17, it may be held inshape for use.

even without any other internal support, but when the carton thusconstructed is employed as an egg carrier, the cellular filling whichholds the eggs separated is made to perform the further functionofpreventing the walls of the box from collapsing.

In Fig. 5 of the drawings I have shown the filling in place ready toreceive the eggs or other contents.- This filling may be of the usual orany suitable form. Of course it is desirable to employ a form capable ofbeing collapsed, so as to lie flat like the carton itself, when not inuse, but when in place in 1 the box will combine with the box in thejoint duty of holding the box-and the filling against collapse, it beingseen that so long as the marginal members of the filling are retained intheir rectangular relation to one another, the filling will be heldagainst collapse, and as long as the end and front walls of the box aresupported by the direct thrust of the longitudinal and cross members ofthe filling, the box cannot collapse. The filling which is preferablyemployed for this purpose is composed of straight strips'or mem-' bersoppositely slitted and mortised together in the usual way, but the sideand end members are preferably composed of asingle instead of separatestrips. This single strip has its two ends brought to ether, as shown at23, and after being over apped, they are locked together by beingmortlsed with the middle longitudinal member 24, thus making the onestrip serve for forming both as ends Well as the sides of the filling.The other end of the middle member 24 is interlocked with the oppositeend portions 25 of the said continuous strip, in the same manner, orinany other suitable way, and the three longitudinal members thusconstituted are secured together and spaced by the cross members 26which are interlocked or mortised there- The cross members 26 and thelongitudinal member 24 project slightly beyond the walls of the cells,as shown at 27, 28 respectively, and hold the cell walls away from thebox walls.

ith' an egg carrier thus constructed it will be seen that after the boxor outside portion is completely manufactured ready for-use, it may becrushed into a comparatively flat thin form and packed together with thecellular filling for shipment in a comparatively small s ace and whenready for use ma beinstant y unfolded for receiving the cel ular fillingand the contents without the necessity of lockin the members of theblank (should the box e composed of a blank) before it can be got readyfor use.

stood by those skilled in the art, the details of an exemplificationthereof have been thus specifically described, but

What I claim is:

The herein described flexible box comprisin a bottom having end flapsprovided with iagonalfold creases extendlngfrom the rear corners at thepoints of junction with the bottom and outwardly toward the top edges ofthe flaps to points remote from the front edges thereof, a front rovidedwith diagonal fold creases exten in from the lower corners inwardlytoward t e top edge thereof, said front having flaps beyond the diagonalfold creases separate from the flaps on the bottom, a back-wall havingend flaps separate from the flaps on the bottom and front and rear wallsrovi'ded with diagonal fold creases extendmg from the lower cornerstoward the outer corners, the outer corners of the flaps on the flaps onthe front and rear walls being folded over the end flaps on the bottomand over each other, a single fastening device passing being cut away,the end through all of the flaps for permanently securing the lattertogether to form reinforced end walls, and a top having a flap on itsfront edge adapted to be inserted within the box contiguous to the frontwall for holding all of the walls from collapsing, the box being adaptedto be crushed or fol ed fiat without destroying the continuity of thewalls by bending the front wall inwardly on the diagonal fold creasesbetween the end walls and upon the bottom, then folding the end wallsinwardly toward each other on the diagonal fold creases and over thefront wall, and then the rear wall inwardl toward the front wall andover the end wa Without detaching the-end flaps.

n testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 13th day of July A. D.1908.

WILLIAM A. SCHURMANN Witnesses; I

FRANCIS A. HOPKINS,

Elms. H. SEEM.

